Lalor coach Steve Marshall says the club is well placed for a strong recruiting drive after reaching Northern Football League finals

LALOR coach Steve Marshall says the club’s improvement in 2014 could be the catalyst for a strong recruiting drive.

NFL football: Mernda versus Lalor at Mernda Recreation Reserve. Lalors coach Steve Marshall. Pictures:Angie Basdekis

LALOR coach Steve Marshall says the club’s improvement in 2014 could be the catalyst for a strong recruiting drive.

The Bloods rose from seventh last year in Northern Football League Division 2 to finish fourth before being knocked out in the opening week of finals by Mernda.

Marshall said the club was determined to lock away its list and build on the success of its recently completed campaign.

“We’ve pretty much signed everyone for next year,” Marshall said.

“We had a meeting with each of the players last week and they’re all happy to hang around and build toward what our end goal is which is obviously winning a premiership.”

Marshall said Lalor’s on-field success gave it greater “currency” in the recruiting market.

“We’ve put the feelers out already with a few different names,” he said.

“We have to recruit and get better, same as every other club. As long as we get improvement out of our young blokes (and) we maybe get a few more come across to the club I’m sure we’ll go further, get those next couple of steps.

“At the start of last year we had no currency. It’s hard to recruit players if they’ve got a choice between us and another club when you’ve finished last.

“I think we did well to recruit as many people as we did last year.”

Marshall appears certain to coach again in 2015, but added he operated with a “handshake agreement” with the club.

He said the Bloods could be proud of what they had achieved this year.

“Obviously you always want to go further into finals, but I’m pretty proud of the boys, especially the young fellas who came through. We were a long way off last year, fighting relegation,” he said.

“To make the four this year, at the start of the season I would’ve been pretty happy with where we’ve ended up.”

Marshall said he had been surprised by the dramatic end to the Division 2 campaign, with Epping relegated after a heavy Round 18 loss to Diamond Creek.